Consumer Price Index fever down – Viet Nam – News

Hanoi Times – According to the Central Statistical Office, CPI increased 1.13 per cent in July 2008 compared to June 2008 (2.14 per cent). This is the lowest rate since early this year. However, according to Central Statistical Office, the average rate of the first seven months of 2008 CPI increased 21.28 per cent compared to the same period last year. In general, consumption price is slowing down. In July 2008, rice price index decreased 0.37 per cent compared to the previous month of 4.29 percent. Food price index increased 1.33 per cent compared to 3.05 per cent in June because livestock meat price decreased 0.18 per cent, pork decreased 0.37 per cent. The difference in prices between cities and rural areas is a big problem. In fact, consumer price index in rural areas is higher than cities. For example, in cities, CPI increased 1.10 per cent compared to the previous month, but in rural areas it increased 1.16 per cent, that’s higher than the country’s average level. The same happened to housing price and building materials index which increased 1.47 per cent, health care and medicine price index increased 1.98 per cent in cities, compared to 1.85 and 2.00 per cent respectively in rural areas. In general, July’s CPI increased much more slowly than that of the previous month. But this statistics updated o­n 20th July did not include the effect of the sharp increase in petrol price since 21st July. Thus, in order to curb inflation and increasing…